Unofficial truths and everyday insights: understanding voice in visual research with the children of Accra's urban poor¹

[1] Our thanks to the participants in the seminar ‘Emergent Seeing and Knowing: Mapping Practices of Participatory Visual Methods’ (Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Studies, Harvard University, November 2008), and to Carol Wolkowitz, Margaret Archer, Dick Chalfen, Wendy Luttrell and an anonymous referee for comments on earlier versions of this article. Thanks also to the Research Development Fund at the University of Warwick for its initial support, and to all those who have made the research this article draws upon possible, especially the children.

Abstract

This article draws upon the use of photography to research the lives of children living in Accra, Ghana. Its aim is to consider method in visual research, and to reflect upon those modes of explanation and understanding that any consideration of method must require. It suggests a role for photography as a ‘vector’, as something capable of connecting our knowledge and understanding of the everyday with the everyday experiences and reality of others. Drawing upon the photographs and spoken testimonies of children who live and work on the street, and of children who live in a large informal settlement, the article advances an intimate connection between photography and knowledge of the everyday reality of children's lives, most evident in the capacity of children's photographs to surprise and highlight the fallibility of our understandings.

Notes

[1] Our thanks to the participants in the seminar ‘Emergent Seeing and Knowing: Mapping Practices of Participatory Visual Methods’ (Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Studies, Harvard University, November 2008), and to Carol Wolkowitz, Margaret Archer, Dick Chalfen, Wendy Luttrell and an anonymous referee for comments on earlier versions of this article. Thanks also to the Research Development Fund at the University of Warwick for its initial support, and to all those who have made the research this article draws upon possible, especially the children.

[2] The article concerned is Mizen (2005), one of our first attempts to elaborate method in the use of photography with (working) children.

[3] Kids with Cameras is Briski's foundation promoting photography with children (www.kids-with-cameras.org).

[4] All names are pseudonyms. All ages are at first interview. Interviews were conducted in Twi and then transcribed and translated into English.

[5] Catholic Action for Street Children, where some of our research took place.